Erkki-Sven Tüür

Erkki-Sven Tüür was born in 1959 in Kärdla, on the Estonian island of Hiiumaa. Largely self-taught, he studied percussion and flute at the Tallinn Music School from 1976 to 1980; later, from 1980 to 1984 he studied composition with Jaan Rääts at the Estonian Academy of Music and took private lessons from Lepo Sumera. In 1979 he founded the chamber rock group "In spe", for which he was composer, flutist, keyboard player and vocalist. With the advent of "perestroika" Tüür’s music was heard outside Estonia. Success in Finland, initially, in the late 1980s, led to a number of commissioned works, including Searching for Roots (Hommage à Sibelius) (1990) for the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and Architectonics VI (1991) commissioned by the Helsinki Festival. Architectonics VI also appeared on his ECM New Series debut “Crystallisatio”, issued in 1996. His other ECM albums are “Flux” (recorded 1998), “Exodus” (recorded 2002), “Oxymoron” (recorded 2003 and 2006), and “Strata” (recorded 2007 and 2009).
Tüür’s works have been heard around the world and played by many international orchestras and ensembles including the Estonian State Symphony Orchestra, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Royal Flanders Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Dortmund Opera, Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, American Waterways Wind Symphony Orchestra, Stockholm Saxophone Quartet, The Hilliard Ensemble, Piano Circus, The Grieg Trio, Cologne Radio Choir, Rascher Saxophone Quartet, and many others.
Laura Mikkola studied at the Sibelius-Academy in Helsinki, the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and the University of Indiana, Bloomington. She has been the recipient of many notable awards, and her early career was boosted by successes in the Queen Elisabeth, Unisda Transnet, Maj Lind and Maurice Ravel piano competitions. Mikkola has performed as soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Mariinsky Theater Orchestra, Münchner Symphoniker, Royal Philharmonic of Flandres, Orchestre National de Belgique, Czech Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, Washington National Symphony Orchestra, Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra, Stuttgart Staatsoper Orchester, Essen Philharmonic and many others, and worked with conductors including Esa-Pekka Salonen, Leif Segerstam, Philippe Entremont, Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Ashkenazy, and Paavo Järvi. Since 2003, Laura Mikkola is the Artistic Director of the Iitti Music Festival in Finland.